Risks and Recommendations Regarding Human Pathogens in Organic Vegetable Production Chains (PathOrganic)

Vegetables contaminated with human pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli have been pointed to as a source of disease outbreaks in humans. However, available data on pathogen occurrence, survival and transmission in vegetables are scarce.

The EU-project ‘PathOrganic' focus on the risk of contaminating organic vegetables with human pathogens when livestock manure is used to fertilize vegetables as alternative to conventional fertilizers.

A combination of field studies, laboratory experiments, questionnaires and risk modelling will be performed to improve our understanding of how factors such as manure type, plant genotype, environment, soil buffering, etc. affect spread and persistence of pathogens. The obtained information should enable a better control of human pathogens associated with fresh produce.